No. 17 Iowa State Falls to St. Mary's, 3-1

LINCOLN, Neb. – No. 17 Iowa State fought hard on both sides of the ball, but eventually succumbed to St. Mary’s 3-1 (25-21, 18-25, 25-19, 25-22) Friday in the Devaney Sports Center. The loss drops Iowa State to 5-3 while the win improved the Gaels to 4-2 on the year.

Turning Point of the MatchIn all three of Iowa State’s sets that they fell in, you can find early runs that put the Cyclones into holes they were never able to get out of. In the first set, St. Mary’s jumped into a 4-0 lead before Christy Johnson-Lynch called a timeout. Iowa State recovered well, reducing the deficit to 14-13 at one point, but ISU was unable to tie or get ahead in the set.

In the third frame, SMU scored the first two points and though ISU was able to get a tie at 3-3 the Cyclones were never in the lead during the set. In the fourth set, St. Mary’s got ahead 4-1 before eventually pulling ahead 9-4 and forcing Iowa State to take a timeout. ISU never led in the set and was only tied at 1-1.

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Cyclone Match Ball Goes to…Victoria Hurtt. The junior All-American seemed unstoppable at times. Hurtt had one of her best attacking performances of her career with 21 kills at a .462 hitting percentage. With ISU trying to battle back in the fourth, Hurtt was at her absolute best, finishing the frame with eight kills at a .583 hitting percentage.

Honorable mention goes to Ciara Capezio, who recorded her second consecutive double-double with 15 kills and 11 digs.

Cyclone Nation, who was your player of the match? Tweet the player along with the hashtag #CyclONEmatchball to @CycloneVB and we’ll announce the fan’s pick later before tomorrow’s match.

Cyclone Notes*Jenelle Hudson posted her fourth double-double of the season with 46 assists and 11 digs. All four of her double-doubles have comes in the last five matches.*Kristen Hahn had 20 digs, marking her fourth match with at least 20 digs on the season and 37th of her career. She is only one dig away from tying Katie Churm for fourth on Iowa State’s all-time digs list.*Victoria Hurtt posted her first 20-kill match of the season with 21 kills. She has three 20-kill matches in her career.*Ciara Capezio posted her second double-double with 15 kills and 11 digs. She had 14 kills and 11 digs yesterday for her first career double-double.*Taylor Goetz had a career-best with five digs in the match. She had four digs for her career going into the match.

On DeckIowa State returns to the Devaney Center Saturday night to take on the hosts, No. 12 Nebraska, for a 7 p.m. match.